One of the many perks of a 22-city book tour includes never being hungry. As I criss-cross the United States and Canada, I get to explore all sorts of incredible regional North American cuisine, cocktails, and craft brewing. Aside from a few sad airport breakfasts, I have been loving the food on the road and [...]

Whether you're in Rome for 24 hours or 24 years, it's essential to know exactly what to order. There may not be anything spontaneous or whimsical about planning exactly what you're going to eat in advance, but trust me what I tell you it is a critical feature of eating well in the Italian capital. [...]

Update: Litro is now closed Sundays and open Mondays. So now Sundays are the worst. Mondays are the worst. I didn’t always feel this way. My recent distaste for the first day of the work week is born out of an obsession for Litro, a wine bar in Monteverde Vecchio, the posh residential district above [...]

Hungry and on a budget. That’s what I was when I came to Rome as a student in 1999. But back then, my lira went a whole lot farther than today’s euro. With this in mind, Parla Food is launching a “Rome on a Budget” series with the help of two University of California interns, [...]

I spend so much time here banging on about my southern Italian heritage that you may not know I’m a quarter Polish. My paternal grandmother’s family was from Warsaw and, while she made outstanding Italian-American food for Grandpa Parla, Grandma Zamoita also stuffed a mean pierogi and cooked […]